Peppermint And Gunpowder

Chapter Forty-Five: A Joyride In A Stolen Car

Cherri pulled up in a battered old van an hour later. The breaks made a squeaky halt paces away from the Trans-am.

"Cherri, what the hell took you so long?" Poison walks to the driver's side door and stops in his tracks. "Bandit?"

Sitting in the passenger seat was Bandit, smiling, her cheeks flushed. Poison looks at her then back to Cherri.

"Is there anyone else?" He asks and Cherri points to the back rows of seats. The van's second row had been modified to fit Dr. D's wheelchair fully and he did some sort of half salute as a greeting. Beside him, in a regular seat, Pony sits with his helmet in his lap.

A woman with a face I do not know sits on Pony's left hand side, her legs are crossed and her eyes are tired. A tattoo of two red roses stands out against her pale blonde hair, freckles dancing across her cheeks and down her chest. A silver chain necklace with multiple tarnished charms dangles loosely, brown square-frame glasses slip halfway down the brink of her nose. She does not speak.

"Cherri, why... why do you have these people?" Poison says, ignoring the presence of the other four people in the van.

"Did you expect to be able to get into BLI without backup? Not a chance in hell." Cherri taps the steering wheel and raises his eyebrows. "You didn't really think that I'd let you go in there alone, did you?"

"Poison, we've already talked about this." Bandit's voice goes grave. "You guys need as much help as you can get. Even with us the Dracs are going to outnumber us. Without us this is just a suicide mission."

"Even with us it's still a suicide mission." The woman says. She looks at Poison. "You get what you can take, even the slightest boost could change the outcome of this whole thing. So shut your damn mouth and get your guys in the car."

Poison looks stunned. He blinks a few times before realizing that she is right and turns to the rest of the group, who'd gathered behind him after the van first pulled up.

Bandit opens her door and jumps from the heightened edge and gestures to the front row.

Poison and Jet silently take the front two seats beside Cherri, surely to talk plans of the mission that have been talked multiple times before.

"Bandit, you and Mercury are going to have to share a seat, y'all are small enough." Dr. D says through the opening between the door and headrest. Bandit and I look at each other and smile before clamoring around the back and climbing into the back row.

For a minute, it's just another car ride. A car ride with no clear destination in sight, a car ride merely for fun.

For a minute, we're children again going for a joyride in a stolen car. Ghoul and Kobra slide into the seats beside us, Bandit sits half on me and half on Kobra. He laughs and wraps his arms around her waist and she flicks him in the ear. He laughs again.

Cherri starts the engine and Jet begins reciting the plans the same way he's done a hundred times before. The woman whose name I do not know asks a question I do not hear and Jet gives a response I do not understand.

Bandit laughs louder than before, drawing my attention away from everything else.

This is the first time that Kobra has laughed since we left Gracie in Tommy's shop.

Kobra and Bandit continue their banter and I silently thanked her for making him smile. She has this way with people, a way that is so especially her, that she can make anyone smile no matter how dreaded the situation. She can make you laugh in the darkest days, she brings light.

It's beautifully strange.

The car falls into a soft silence. Through the corner of my eye, I was sure I saw them both sitting with their hands intertwined, Kobra's thumb steadily grazing atop Bandit's palm. I smile to myself but say nothing.